Electrical self-aligning connector

A self-aligning electrical connector device includes a receptacle component having a conically contoured interior and a plug component having a correspondingly contoured conical body receivable in the receptacle component. The plug component has a number of spaced conductive ring elements with a mating face and the receptacle component includes corresponding spaced conductive ring elements providing mating interface with the mating face of the ring elements of the plug component when connected to it. Each ring element of the receptacle component has several segmented portions which defect downwardly when the plug component is inserted. A biasing force is asserted against the face of the ring elements of the plug component providing positive electrical contact and connection between the ring elements of the components

A Real-life Test of Face Recognition System for Dialogue Interface Robot in Ubiquitous Environments

This paper discusses a face recognition system for a dialogue interface robot that really works in ubiquitous environments and reports an experimental result of real-life test in a ubiquitous environment. While a central module of the face recognition system is composed of the decomposed eigenface method, the system also includes a special face detection module and the face registration module. Since face recognition should work on images captured by a camera equipped on the interface robot, all the methods are tuned for the interface robot. The face detection and recognition modules accomplish robust face detection and recognition when one of the registered users is talking to the robot. Some interesting results are reported with careful analysis of a sufficient real-life experiment.</p

Simplified computer program for the analysis of phase change in liquid face seals

A simplified computer program is presented which allows for the prediction of boiling (phase change) in liquid face seals. The program determines if and when boiling occurs and then calculates the location of the boiling interface, pressure and temperature profiles, and load. The main assumption which allows for a simplified analysis is the assumption of an isothermal gas phase

Numerical and analytical modeling of orthogonal cutting : The link between local variables and global contact characteristics

The response of the tool–chip interface is characterized in the orthogonal cutting process by numerical and analytical means and compared to experimental results. We study the link between local parameters (chip temperature, sliding friction coefficient, tool geometry) and overall friction characteristics depicting the global response of the tool–chip interface. Sticking and sliding contact regimes are described. The overall friction characteristics of the tool are represented by two quantities: (i) the mean friction coefficient qualifies the global response of the tool rake face (tool edge excluded) and (ii) the apparent friction coefficient reflects the overall response of the entire tool face, the effect of the edge radius being included. When sticking contact is dominant the mean friction coefficient is shown to be essentially the ratio of the average shear flow stress along the sticking zone by the average normal stress along the contact zone. The dependence of overall friction characteristics is analyzed with respect to tool geometry and cutting conditions. The differences between mean friction and apparent friction are quantified. It is demonstrated that the evolutions of the apparent and of the mean friction coefficients are essentially controlled by thermal effects. Constitutive relationships are proposed which depict the overall friction characteristics as functions of the maximum chip temperature along the rake face. This approach offers a simple way for describing the effect of cutting conditions on the tool–chip interface response. Finally, the contact length and contact forces are analyzed. Throughout the paper, the consistency between numerical, analytical and experimental results is systematically checked

Explicit solution for a two--phase fractional Stefan problem with a heat flux condition at the fixed face

A generalized Neumann solution for the two-phase fractional Lam\'e--Clapeyron--Stefan problem for a semi--infinite material with constant initial temperature and a particular heat flux condition at the fixed face is obtained, when a restriction on data is satisfied. The fractional derivative in the Caputo sense of order \al \in (0,1) respect on the temporal variable is considered in two governing heat equations and in one of the conditions for the free boundary. Furthermore, we find a relationship between this fractional free boundary problem and another one with a constant temperature condition at the fixed face and based on that fact, we obtain an inequality for the coefficient which characterizes the fractional phase-change interface obtained in Roscani--Tarzia, Adv. Math. Sci. Appl., 24 (2014), 237-249. We also recover the restriction on data and the classical Neumann solution, through the error function, for the classical two-phase Lam\'e-Clapeyron-Stefan problem for the case \al=1.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figur

Electromigration process for the purification of molten silicon during crystal growth

A process for the purification of molten materials during crystal growth by electromigration of impurities to localized dirty zones. In the Czochralski crystal growing process, the impurities are electromigrated away from the crystallization interface by applying a direct electrical current to the molten silicon for electromigrating the charged impurities away from the crystal growth interface. The edge-defined film-fed crystal growth process, a direct electrical current is applied between the two faces which are used in forming the molten silicon into a ribbon. The impurities, migrated to one side only of the crystal ribbon, may be removed or left in place. If left in place, they will not adversely affect the ribbon when used in solar collectors. The migration of the impurity to one side only of the silicon ribbon is especially suitable for use with asymmetric dies which preferentially crystallize uncharged impurities along one side or face of the ribbon

Co-constructing intersubjectivity with artificial conversational agents: people are more likely to initiate repairs of misunderstandings with agents represented as human

This article explores whether people more frequently attempt to repair misunderstandings when speaking to an artificial conversational agent if it is represented as fully human. Interactants in dyadic conversations with an agent (the chat bot Cleverbot) spoke to either a text screen interface (agent's responses shown on a screen) or a human body interface (agent's responses vocalized by a human speech shadower via the echoborg method) and were either informed or not informed prior to interlocution that their interlocutor's responses would be agent-generated. Results show that an interactant is less likely to initiate repairs when an agent-interlocutor communicates via a text screen interface as well as when they explicitly know their interlocutor's words to be agent-generated. That is to say, people demonstrate the most “intersubjective effort” toward establishing common ground when they engage an agent under the same social psychological conditions as face-to-face human-human interaction (i.e., when they both encounter another human body and assume that they are speaking to an autonomously-communicating person). This article's methodology presents a novel means of benchmarking intersubjectivity and intersubjective effort in human-agent interaction